Lambert SUAVIUS (ZUTMAN) (c. 1510 - 1574/1576) (attributed to): Three allegorical figures: Bellum, Pax and Abundantia - c. 1550
Price: 4500 €
Engraving, approx. 102 x 72 mm each.
Superb impressions printed on laid paper. A small vertical crease on the right in two impressions and a tiny hole on the left edge at Pax.
Provenance: Peter Birmann & Söhne (Lugt 414c), his collector's mark printed in black on the reverse of each plate. Peter Birmann (1758-1844) was a landscape painter, art dealer and publisher from Basel.
The British Museum preserves a precious gilt brass box made around 1570, used as a case for drawing tools. "This is the earliest known set of drawing instruments in their original case; it was made by Bartholomew Newsum, clockmaker to Elizabeth I" (I. Meliconi, EPACT 1998). The four sides of the case are decorated with engraved figures, three of which are identical to those in our series, with only minor decorative details omitted or modified. Despite the precious nature of the case, the engravings are rather clumsy and stiff, suggesting that they were clumsily copied from prints or a common model.
The 4th figure is an allegory of poverty. It bears the engraved inscription Pauperies Belli filia. The British Museum holds an impression of the corresponding print. The other three prints in this series are missing from the British Museum.
This series of allegories is extremely rare. We are aware of only one copy of the complete series, kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (former object number Ea. 19, b. rés.), which François Courboin describes in his Catalogue sommaire des gravures et lithographies composant la Réserve, 1900 tome 1, pp. 75-76, attributing it to an anonymous Italian engraver of the 16th century. The British Museum proposes an attribution to Lambert Suavius, known as Zutman.